67% win rate Human DnT list!

This list has been previously highlighted in the metagame stats (104W-67L or 61% win rate) with a personal record of 54-30 (64%) win rate.  I've since played it a lot more and made alterations and am currently on a 107-51 (67%) win rate (cumaltive across all versions of this decklist).  

Who is this deck for?

This deck is an aggro/tempo deck that uses disruptive pieces to maintain its board state and removal to maintain its damage.  It's a bit of a hybrid between Human Tribal and Death & Taxes, making more agressive than classic D&T.  

This deck is for you if you like:

• Tempo Tribal decks (e.g. Modern/Historic Merfolk or Modern/Pioneer Spirits)
• Love beating control (preventing boardwipes until turn 7 is fun!)
• Having cheap tutorable answers in game 1
• Having silver bullets for games 2 & 3

Playing vs Classic Control (Azorius, Esper or Jeskai)

Ideal hands will include Esper Sentinel; either Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or a silver bullet; and either Reidane, God of the Worthy or Elite Spellbinder.  As Thalia & either Reidane or Spellbinder will push back key plays by 3 turns which is huge when that play is either Teferi or a board wipe whilst Sentinel will hopefully give you more cards to keep up with their removal and card draw.  Against nearly all types of control I'd mulligan to six if my opening hand had none of the above.  

Out:

• Cut down to 1x Giant Killer except vs Jeskai where you want to cut down to 2x Giant Killer in the main
• Take out all of Hopeful Initiate and some of Skyclave Apparition if they are not bringing Artifact/Enchantment based removal (Esper is most likely not to do this - but you'll want to keep them if you think they're playing Esper Doom type decks)
• Thalia's Lieutenant and Luminarch Aspirant are otherwise the weakest cards in this matchup, and trimming down on these to make room for the silver bullets is really helpful.  

In:

• All of the Elite Spellbinder to delay them from casting the threats / wipes
• Silver bullets as follows:
  • Lion Sash if they are using their graveyard in anyway (mostly going to be brought in vs Jeskai and Esper Reanimator)
  • Drannith Magistrate if they are foretelling, using flashback and/or exile drawing (mostly going to be brought in vs Jeskai and Esper Reanimator)
  • Containment Priest if they are a Reanimator deck (also flash is generally useful vs control)
  • Archon of Emeria can be really good if they are multi-spelling, and can really slow them down if you're on the play

This is a good matchup for playing Guardian of Faith if you have that card in your deck.

Playing vs 5 Colour Niv-Mizzet

This is the control deck that this deck is weakest to, they have fantastic threats, removal and card advantage, which makes Mono-White very jealous...

Similar tactics to the above except Reidane's stocks go down as their board wipes are T3 Deafening Clarion which is a pain in the...  But removal like Giant Killer and Skyclave Apparition are almost mandatory in your opening hand.  Hitting their Territorial Kavu as soon as they cast it is required to keep attacking.  It's really hard to kill them before a T5 Niv and really hard to win after Niv so good luck?

Ideal hands will include either Esper Sentinel or Giant Killer; Thalia, Guardian of Thraben; and either Skyclave Apparition or Elite Spellbinder.  Unfortunately their isn't a golden bullet against them unless you decide to include a Stonecoil Serpent in your deck...  Again I'd mulligan to six if my opening hand had none of the above.  

Out:

• Always cut the Hopeful Initiate
• Always cut the Reidane, God of the Worthy (most of their cards are CMC 3 or less, including the board wipes)

In:

• Always add all of the Elite Spellbinder 
• Citywide Bust can be a blow out but is a bit hit or miss as to whether it plays off
• Archon of Emeria is really good, they will be multi-spelling and they will only have non-basic lands

This is a good matchup for playing Guardian of Faith if you have that card in your deck.

Playing vs Grixis Lurrus & Pheonix

This applies to all variants even though each will run different ratios of removal and threats, the sideboarding and opening hands are pretty much the same as opponent is trying to sling spells gain incremental card advantage by using their graveyard to maximum effect.

Out:

• Always cut the Hopeful Initiate 
• Always cut the Reidane, God of the Worthy's (all of their noncreature spells are typically 2cmc max)
• Cut down to 2x Giant Killer's 

In:

• Always Lion Sash and either Drannith Magistrate if they are a Lurrus deck and/or Containment Priest if they are a Phoenix deck
• Archon of Emeria is really good, they will be multi-spelling
• Settle the Wreckage great vs Phoenix as it exiles and hits them all at once
• Elite Spellbinder is another good one vs Phoenix as it can block & trade with a Phoenix and can force them to cast it for 6 mana

This is a good matchup for playing Guardian of Faith if you have that card in your deck.

Playing vs Aura Lurrus

I expect this deck to get more popular with the Pioneer challenger decks coming out...  This the a bad matchup if we don't draw our removal, kinda like 5 colour Niv.  

Out:

• Always cut the Reidane, God of the Worthy's (all of their noncreature spells are typically 2cmc max)

In:

• Always Lion Sash and Drannith Magistrate as they are a Lurrus deck
• Consider adding some/all of the board wipes as they can get out of hand very quickly before we have a chance to build up

Playing vs Sythis Enchantments

Hail Sithis.  Anyway, the matchup isn't great however hopefully the addition of Hopeful Initiate will change that as having a tutorable, repeatable removal spell is going to give us additional percentage points against them.  

Out:

• Cut all of Reidane, God of the Worthy
• Cut down to 1x [[Giant Killer]
• Cut down to 1x Selfless Savior

In:

• 1x Skyclave Apparition 
• 2x Archon of Emeria
• 3x Elite Spellbinder

Playing vs Gruul Aggro/Tribal Aggro

This the matchup is challenging as we're built to go against control not to out-aggro aggro...  However maindeck still can do suprisingly well in game 1 - especially if you manage to get counters onto your Thalia as she can really stall their attacks.  

Out:

• Reduce the number of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben's to 2x - unless they are 2 toughness tribal or you know that they're likely to pivot to being removal heavy
• Cut all Esper Sentinel's unless you know that they're likely to pivot to being removal heavy
• If they are not playing Collected Company cut Reidane, God of the Worthy

In:

• Add all the board wipes as they can get out of hand very quickly before we have a chance to build up 
• Containment Priest if they are a Collected Company or Muxus deck
• Add in the Skyclave Apparition to bring the maindeck up to 4x

I know this doesn't add up to a 60 card main deck, so consider adding Esper Sentinel back in because it is a one drop and consider Archon of Emeria especially on the play
 

Playing vs Lurrus & Jagantha Sacrifice 

Lurrus is easier to beat due to our graveyard hate, Jagantha tends to pivot into a more Jund-Mid post board which is much more challenging. 

Out:

• Cut down to 1x Giant Killer vs Lurrus
• Cut 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben's vs Lurrus, or cut 1x vs Jagantha
• Cut Reidane, God of the Worthy

In:

• Add 2x Lion Sash and 2x Drannith Magistrate vs Lurrus
• Add 2x Containment Priest to help vs Cat-Oven combo 

Again you will have to tweek it slightly as this doesn't add up to 60 cards in the main deck

Notable exculsions & card selection discussion

Archon of Emeria doesn't prevent enough as it still lets control play two spells a turn cycle (w/ flash speed) and if they counter your spell that's it... Also most decks are quite happy just playing their best card each turn and can screw over our turn 4 as we often want to double spell on T4....  Also Reidane, God of the Worthy is definitely the correct main deck choice over Archon of Emeria, being able to slow down board wipes to turn 6 whilst being able to double spell has been amazing.  

From many reps I've found that Sungold Sentinel is weak as it doesn't exile enough cards nor does it exile at instant speed.  It was replaced by Rest in Peace even though it isn't a human and gets hit by Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.  Rest in Peace was in turn replaced by Lion Sash which doesn't get hit by Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and can dodge boardwipes, but is a bit slow to get exiling.  

Similarly Intrepid Adversary & Mikaeus, the Lunarch are both too slow/expensive.  I'm really sad about cutting Mikaeus as he has been a really cool tutor target for Ranger-Captain of Eos but has rarely been required.  

Having a mixture of Skyclave Apparition and Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute really paid off in the previous meta but as removal is on the rise, I've replaced the Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute with more Giant Killer's as I don't like my opponent rebuying their ETB trigger when they remove the Cathar.  

Similarly having a mixture of Dauntless Bodyguard & Selfless Savior initially worked fine.  However Selfless Saviour is the more flexible card, so cut Dauntless Bodyguard completely.  (Hopeful Initiate replaced it, but could see increasing the number of Selfless Saviour's in the main instead being the correct call)

Guardian of Faith has performed better than Restoration Angel for me due to the reliance of +1/+1 counters & low number of ETBs in the deck coupled with the lower mana value (enabling casting a 2 drop and hold up 3 mana), so I made a complete swap from 2 of each split to 4x Guardian of Faith.  However this is has been too slow and focusing 

I didn't cast Emeria's Call in over 50 games, I replaced it with a Plains...

The deck's biggest weakness is aggro decks like Goblins & Elves, so I tried Settle the Wreakage and loved it.  Upped it to two in the side alongside a Citywide Bust and they have payed off.